Tag: quantum physics

Quantum mechanics imposes a limit on what we can know about subatomic particles. If physicists measure a particle’s position, they cannot also measure its momentum, so the theory goes. But a new experiment has managed to circumvent this rule—the so-called uncertainty principle—by ascertaining just a little bit about a particle’s position, thus retaining the ability to measure its momentum, too.

As a quantum state collapses, it will follow a path known as a quantum trajectory. In a new paper featured this week on the cover of Nature, scientists have shown that it is possible to track these quantum trajectories and compare them to a theory, recently developed by University of Rochester physicists, for predicting the most likely path a system will take.

The new finding could help explore a fundamental question of science – why is the universe made up almost exclusively of matter, when matter and antimatter were created in equal amounts in the Big Bang?

An experiment to look for one of nature’s most elusive subatomic particles is underway in a stainless steel tank nearly a mile underground beneath the Black Hills of South Dakota. And among the dozens of scientists involved in the research is physics Professor Frank Wolfs.

July 4, 2012, was an historic day for researchers at CERN. It also marked an important period at the University of Rochester as three physicists and an engineer helped support the nearly five-decades-old theory of one of their colleagues.